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Aug 09, 2018SPL_Brittany rated this title 3.5 out of 5 stars
After the death of her father in New York, Nour's family move back to Syria. The timing could not have been worse. A few months after they move back to Syria, the civil war begins and they are forced to navigate their way as refugees back to safety. 800 years earlier, we meet Rawiya, a girl who disguises herself as a boy in order to become an apprentice to a mapmaker who also takes on a journey of epic proportions in ways that echoes that of Nour and her family. A leisurely paced novel that due to the dual storylines, unfurls as both a historical and contemporary novel of travel, that is both richly detailed and moving in different ways as we follow Rawiya and Nouri in their travels across the Middle East and Africa. Filled with a well developed cast of characters, it is both a sobering and moving look at the refugee experience, followed by a touch of magical realism in Rawiya's journey. Readers who enjoyed "The Kite Runner", stories of the refugee experience, and novels that are set in the Middle East, are sure to enjoy this novel.